Average Detentions per Month

Percent of Detentions with Search or Frisk

Ratio of Black to White Citizens Detained

About the Data

A temporary detention involves a police officer holding and questioning an individual for a short amount of time. The police only need reasonable suspicion for a temporary detention. Detentions may be accompanied by some form of search or frisk, though not all detentions involve a search. Detentions can be dispatched in response to a call or initiated by an officer.

This analysis is based on records of temporary detentions made by the City of Charlottesville Police. The data was received in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by Jeff Fogel made over multiple time periods. We have aggregated the data to two primary time periods:

• Period 1: mid-July 2012 to mid-June 2014
• Period 2: January 2016 to mid-October 2016 combined with January 2017-December 2017

Navigate to additional pages for further analysis:

• Who? compares the percent of Black and White detentions to the overall population in the city.
• Where? visualizes where Black and White citizens are detained by the police.
• Why? shows the reason recorded by the police for the detention across Black and White residents.

Detentions, with and without Search/Frisk, by Race

Detentions per 1000 population for Black residents (2-year period)

Detentions per 1000 population for White residents (2-year period)

Map Details

• These maps display all police detainments between 2012-2014 and 2016-2017
• Each point represents one stop
• Points do not represent exact locations of each stop
• Density of the dots represent the density of detainments in a geographic area
• To help guide your eyes, detainments that include Search and Frisk are circled in red
• Turn on and off underlying population characteristics through the box on the right
• Note that our percentages used are based solely on a comparison of White and Black populations given that they were the only races identifiable in the police data files.

Detainments 2012 - 2014 & 2016 - 2017

Detainments by Beat

Changes Over Time

Trends:

• Greater dispersion of stop and frisk throughout the city during the 2017
• Noticeable decrease of stop and frisk in the Rose Hill nieghborhood.
• Stop and frisk of black individuals in areas with predominantly student housing increased, specifically in the Grady, Rugby Road, and Emmet Street Areas in addition to the areas south of west main by the train tracks and Jefferson Park Avenue.
• Stop and Frisk increased significantly, particularly for black individuals, in the Prospect/Orangedale Ave area.

2012-2014

2016-2017

Over Policing & Exclusive Spaces

The data does not record why police enter certain spaces, whether it is an officer-initiated discretionary stop or a response to a call. We also do not have data on whether or not a detainment led to an arrest. The offense listed is the reason the police officer recorded to justify the stop based on reasonable suspicion, not a determination that the offense occured. Beacuse of this, it is difficult to say that police detainments are an indicator of crime. Fewer detainments does not immediatley signify less crime in an area, just less police activity.

Below, we highlight three areas, a predominantly black residential space, a predominantly white residential space, and a public walking mall to investigate who police detain and where.

Ridge Street & Prospect-Orangedale Neighborhoods

Martha Jefferson & Locust Grove Neighborhoods

Downtown

# A tibble: 9 x 8
# Groups:   NAME, RACE [6]
  NAME               BEAT_NO RACE  SFTYPE           Counts total RaceTot lab_pos
  <chr>                <dbl> <fct> <chr>             <dbl> <int>   <dbl>   <dbl>
1 "Martha Jefferson"       8 Black STOP WITH SEARC…      1     4       1       2
2 "Martha Jefferson"       8 White Search WITHOUT …     -2     4      -3      -4
3 "Martha Jefferson"       8 White STOP WITH SEARC…     -1     4      -3      -4
4 "Prospect\\Orange…      21 Black Search WITHOUT …      3    22      17      18
5 "Prospect\\Orange…      21 Black STOP WITH SEARC…     14    22      17      18
6 "Prospect\\Orange…      21 White STOP WITH SEARC…     -5    22      -5      -6
7 "Ridge St"              12 Black Search WITHOUT …      8    56      51      52
8 "Ridge St"              12 Black STOP WITH SEARC…     43    56      51      52
9 "Ridge St"              12 White STOP WITH SEARC…     -5    56      -5      -6

Analysis

Historically, racial covenants prohibited Black individuals from living in the Martha Jefferson and Locust Grove. That legacy continues today

• An estimated 1401 White individuals live in the Martha Jefferson and Locust Grove
• 3 White individuals were detained in the Martha Jefferson and Locust Grove Neighborhoods
• 2.14 White individuals for every 1000 White individuals in those neighborhoods were detained
• An estimated 1731 Black individuals live in in Prospect Orangedale Ave Neighborhood
• 68 Black individuals were detained in the Prospect Orangedale Ave Neighborhood
• 39 Black individuals for every 1000 Black individuals in those neighborhoods were detained

The Downtown Mall is a public space for free use by Charlottesville residents.

• In the periods of 2012 -2014 and 2016-2017, 26 Black individuals were detained by police
• 22 White individuals were detained in the same period.
• 73% of Black individuals stopped (19 individuals) were also searched and frisked
• 31% (7) of White individuals were also searched and frisked.